Beds utilized in hospitals and other health care facilities are typically designed with emphasis placed upon optimizing durability and functionality. Often, less attention is paid to aesthetic considerations in the event it becomes necessary to utilize a hospital bed in a patient's private residence. Such need to utilize a hospital bed in a patient's residence may arise where a patient is recovering at home from surgery or has suffered a debilitating illness, e.g., heart attack or stroke. Other circumstances may warrant the use of a hospital bed in a patient's residence.
In fact, as hospital costs have escalated, the practice of providing patients with hospital rooms and facilities for the purpose of recovery after medical procedures has become prohibitively expensive, forcing many hospitals to reexamine this practice and consider alternatives. One alternative that has been implemented in recent years is the practice of discharging patients from the hospital within a short period of time, e.g., within a few days of a procedure, to return home to recover. In accordance with this practice, all of the facilities, e.g., hospital bed, nursing care, etc., that are necessary to enable recovery are provided to the patient at his or her private residence rather than in the hospital.
Often, the presence of a hospital bed in a person's private residence can be emotionally upsetting to the patient and his or her loved ones and close friends. It would be a significant advancement in the art to provide an ensemble of decorative components for covering various parts of an otherwise unattractive hospital bed during use by a patient when sleeping. It would also be a significant advancement in the art to provide an ensemble of decorative components for covering various parts of the hospital bed when the bed is not being used for sleeping so as to convert the hospital bed into a sofa or some other covered seat that is functional and aesthetically pleasing and more suited for placement in the home.
There have been numerous suggestions in the prior art of providing covers for various parts of a bed, some covers being decorative in nature. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,641,779 (Gill) discloses a decorative cover for a head board formed of a fabric. U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,553 (Boisson) discloses a decorative bed covering having a pair of releasably securable panels. One of the panels comprises a mattress cover in the form of a blanket. The other panel comprises a fitted cover to enclose a pillow. The fitted cover is arranged to be releasably secured to the blanket via hook and loop type fasteners. Several other patents disclose covers for safety rails of a hospital bed, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,530 (Clark); U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,897 (Marra); and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,025 (Peters).
While all of the aforementioned patents seem suitable for their intended purposes, none of them provide a complete ensemble of decorative components for covering various parts of a hospital bed while the hospital bed is being used for its intended purpose, i.e., providing a level support surface on which a patient sleeps. Moreover, none of the aforementioned patents provide a complete ensemble of decorative components for covering various parts of a hospital bed during the time the hospital bed is not being used by a patient for sleeping to convert the hospital bed into a sofa or some other covered seat. Conversion of the hospital bed in this manner will result in an aesthetically pleasing appearance that will promote use of the hospital bed in a home environment. Moreover, conversion of the hospital bed in this manner will provide added capability in enabling the hospital bed to function as a sofa or a covered seat.